Objects in the Eyes are Not What They Appear
by Akane Mirai
Summary: Akane, a freshman at The High School of Historical Studies, overhears the popular group, the Nordic 5, talking about Mafia business. Before she knows it, she finds herself donning the identity of Raj, a boy who is joining the Nordic Mafia to help find and murder an alleged "Country Murderer". How will she keep her identity masked while falling for the coldhearted Emil Steilsson?
1. Chapter 1

"I'M LATE!"

It was 8:30, and a shriek could be heard from the second floor of the house as Parvattie, more commonly known as Akane, furiously began to get herself dressed. It was the first day of high school, and although she was excited for it, she would have preferred to stay on the plush mattress of her bed. Matthew simply sighed while making chocolate chip pancakes for the two. 'I told her not to stay up late,' he thought to himself.

She ran down the stairs, her extremely short, brown yet curly hair neatly combed with a water lily barrette fastened stylishly above her left ear. The brunette's uniform consisted of a burgundy plaid skirt with pleats running just above her knees, and a crisp, ironed uniform shirt with short sleeves and the neck collar folded down neatly. She carried her knee-length white socks and burgundy plaid tie in her hands as she sat down at the table, panting a bit.

"Good morning!" the 14 year old greeted in her normal, cheerful voice as she pulled the white socks over her tanned and blemished skin.

Matthew chuckled, brushing a strand of his blonde hair away from his face and adjusting his glasses as he finished making the last of the pancakes. The queer curl stood out over the side of his face, a long and thin strand of hair which had a large loop in it before falling to the side of his chin. "Bonjour, Akane," the Canadian said sweetly in his soft spoken voice. "I see you stayed up late?" The older 'brother' had a sly smile on his lips.

She laughed nervously as she fumbled with her tie, finally tying it properly after days and days of practice. "Kinda…" she admitted. "But I couldn't help it! I was so excited and nervous…"

He smiled as he brought over the pancakes for the two of them. "You should be. It's normal." He poured a heaping of maple syrup over his pancakes, and handed the bottle of the sweet liquid to her. "Eat up, or you'll be late."

She nodded as she poured the sticky syrup over the chocolate chip pancakes. "Thank you for breakfast, Mattie." She flashed a quick smile before eating quickly and furiously.

After a few minutes, she looked at the clock, her eyes widening. It was 8:45; only 15 minutes until school started. "SorryI'mGoingToBeLateLoveYa!" she said as she kissed her brother's cheek before scrambling to put her black shoes on at the door.

He chased after her and held a forest green lunchbox and her brown, leather shoulder bag in his alabaster hands. "Forgetting something?"

Her head snapped back and she sighed in relief. "You're a lifesaver…" Taking the bags, she hugged him tightly. "I'll see you at 4."

He hugged her back affectionately. "Have fun." He said before planting a small kiss on her forehead.

"Bye!" could be heard as she dashed out the door madly. Her slender figure made her way through the crowd of people as she felt the cold feeling of being late rushing upon her.

She decided to take a shortcut, running through the alleyway between blocks. Akane personally hated these alleyways; the possibility of dirt getting on her crisp and new clothes annoying her. However, she dashed through, finally making herself to the front gates of THSoHS, or The High School of Historical Studies.

Looking around, many students, including Freshmen, Sophomores and Juniors were already walking inside of the large, stone building. The slightly worried and lost brunette followed them inside, making her way into a large and fancy auditorium. She eyed a sign reading 'Freshman Year' with her chocolate eyes and quickly dashed towards it, sitting next to her best friend.

"You made it!" The Vincentian girl squealed and hugged Akane. "I was afraid you were gonna be late!" Her blue eyes sparkled with excitement as she continued to ramble. "We're able to choose classes, more free time, more BOYS!"

Akane sighed. "Hannah, you're extremely hyper today. What did you eat this morning; a sack of sugar?"

Hannah smiled. "I had a Belgian waffle this morning with Nutella and powdered sugar, as well as a glass of chocolate milk." The rich girl said, moving a strand of her curly, dirty blonde hair away from her face.

Akane chuckled. "Of course," she said teasingly, the corners of her lips tugging into a smile.

Hannah pouted and opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the MC's voice. The students directed their attention to the stage as they saw the chairman, a man in a black suit, walk up on the stage. "Do I have everyone's attention?" He paused, looking around. "Good morning, staff and students, and welcome to The High School of Historical Studies. My name is Carlos Belmonte…"

He continued on with the welcome, everyone listening intently to his speech. Hannah, who was annoyed, glanced at Akane. "This is boring-" Her voice was cut off by a loud "SHH" from behind them. Akane quietly apologized, her cheeks burning a tinge of red from embarrassment.

"—And I hope you enjoy your day today." He concluded, the students cheering in the end. They all got up and began to talk their small chatter, heading to class.

"Hm? What's your schedule?" Hannah asked, looking over at a slip of paper Akane retrieved from her bag.

"English. You?" Akane said, a small hint of annoyance in her voice. She wasn't too fond of the subject, and wasn't too good at it either compared to many of her other classes.

"Ah, I see the jokes on you. I have Math." Hannah grinned. "I'll see you at lunch."

"Sure!" Akane smiled as they parted ways to their classes.

* * *

"My name is Michael Abrams, and I'm going to be your homeroom teacher." Mr. Abrams had on a pair of khakis and a blue, collared shirt with a green tie. His face was long, and he had a fair set of brown eyes and brown hair on his light skin. He carried a stack of books in his large hands, putting one on each desk. "I'm going to hand out a grammar exercise workbook on your desks, and please turn to page 12."

Akane groaned to herself and exchanged glances with the girl beside her. She had soft, green eyes and shoulder length blonde hair with bangs just above her eyes. The Swiss girl glanced over and flashed a quick smile at Akane before returning to her work.

Now, Akane stared long and hard at the paper before sighing. She began to put down some answers which seemed to make sense, but had that feeling in her gut that she would have failed this if it was a test.

"Time's up!" Mr. Abrams boomed. Akane looked up and rubbed her temples. "Now, in exercise 1, we were reviewing the conjugations of verbs…"

Akane silently began to correct her work, trying to find a pattern in the words. She managed to find a pattern for most, making a small grid on a separate piece of paper to jot down notes. It was going to be a very long time until lunch came.

* * *

Akane walked down to the lunchroom, trying to see if she could spot the Swiss girl from her English class. She clutched both her lunchbox and her school bag, not bothering to use her locker.

"Akane!" Hannah ran behind her as they entered the cafeteria. "I found you!" She grinned.

Akane nodded and smiled. "Yeah. Now, do you know a girl who has green eyes and blonde, shoulder length hair?" she asked.

"Oh yeah! What's her name… Lili! Lili Zwingli! She's Swiss." Hannah said cheerfully. "I talked to her between classes, and she's really sweet!" Hannah looked around, and saw Lili. "There she is!"

The girls walked up to Lili, Akane a bit shy at first. "H-Hello…" Akane fumbled with the words coming from her mouth. She wasn't really good at talking to people, and always tried her best to be polite.

Lili turned to them and smiled warmly. "Hi! I'm Lili Zwingli, but you can call my Lili." She extended her hand out for a handshake.

"I believe you've met my friend." Akane shook her hand. "I'm Parvattie, Parvattie Singh. But my friends call me Akane." Akane smiled.

Hannah grinned. "Yay! Lili, mind if we sit with you?" She asked enthusiastically.

Lili nodded. "Of course, but…" She trailed off, looking around.

"But what?" Hannah asked nosily. Akane swatted Hannah's arm.

"I hope if you don't mind my brother sitting with us." Lili said in her sweet, accented voice. "He's nice, but he can be a bit… Protective." She explained.

Akane nodded. "I don't mind at all. In fact, you're one of the first people we've met since we came to this school, so it would be great to make new friends." Hannah and Akane sat down in front of Lili.

Just then, an older boy, about a Junior judging by his grey uniform, came to sit beside Lili. "Hi Lili." He said in a rather straightforward and concise tone. Looking to the two in front of him, he nodded slightly. "I'm Vash."

Akane and Hannah exchanged glances before nodding. "I'm Akane, and this is my friend Hannah." She introduced.

They began to open their lunches in a queer silence, not looking at each other. Akane took out the turkey sandwich from her lunchbag and ate quickly, avoiding the crust. She didn't know how to break the silence, and apparently Hannah didn't either.

Standing up, Akane grabbed the leftovers from her lunch in the provided napkin. "I-I'm gonna go and throw this out." She said, breaking the awkward silence.

The brunette walked to the trash can to throw it out, but bumped into somebody. "S-Sorry!" she apologized quickly. Her eyes glanced up to come face to face with a sophomore, holding his bag over his shoulder. Interestingly enough, he had violet eyes and platinum blonde hair which looked almost like a glistening, silvery color.

His blank expression turned into that of a scoff. "Tch, whatever." He walked away, leaving Akane dazed for a moment.

Akane quietly walked back to her seat after disposing of her trash. Hannah and Lili stared at her, happening to catch the scene between them. "You—Him- "Hannah stuttered.

Akane tilted her head in confusion, but Lili seemed to understand where Hannah was coming from.

"OHMYGOD AKANE YOU TALKED TO A MEMBER OF THE NORDIC FIVE!" Hannah squealed and hugged Akane tightly. Akane had an annoyed expression on her face, looking down.

After Akane got away from Hannah's grasp, she looked up and raised an eyebrow. "Nordic Five?" she asked.

"They are the coolest guys ever! Mathias, Lukas, Tino, Berwald and Emil!" Hannah said cheerfully.

Akane hushed the excited fangirl. "Okay then…" She didn't get the point of it at all, or why they were so special. "Then who was that?"

"Emil," Lili explained. "He's from Iceland."

Akane glared at the Icelander, who was busy chatting with a group of guys. Many of the girls from the other tables, regardless of grade, had their eyes glued to them. "Must be as cold as where he comes from." She muttered beneath her breath.

"Um, you do realize Iceland isn't that cold, right?" Lili asked. "And I don't think he's that mean…"

Akane shook her head and gave the group one cold glare before looking away. "Alright…"

* * *

It was after gym that Akane was last in line at the locker room. "These people…" She sighed and walked into another locker room, not reading the sign carefully.

The BOYS' locker room.

She had carried her clothes with her in a separate bag, not bothering to use the provided lockers. As she got to a clear space, she began to change, until she heard some talking.

"So, we know where the guy is. Now we just have to find him, get him and then leave this place." A male voice spoke.

Instantly, Akane paled, already undressed except for her underclothes. She inched towards the edge of the lockers and peeped out to see a group of 5 boys. Her eyes widened as she saw Emil; it was the Nordic 5! Her palms began to sweat, and her breathing almost stopped as she continued to listen.

"Shouldn't we ask for help?" A slightly taller boy with blonde hair and blue eyes asked.

"Nonsense, Tino. We would have to kill them right after." A junior responded, with a similar blank expression to Emil. He also had blonde hair, but had some hair tucked back with a cross pin and a curl on the back of his neck.

"Unless they were a guy. Then they'd have to join." The seemingly tallest and oldest man said in his deep, gruff voice.

"Yeah! But let's just enjoy this high school thing while we're at it!" The leader had spiky blonde hair and a wild grin, putting his hands on his hips.

Emil groaned. "Shut up, you're too loud."

Akane felt herself tremble in fear as she began to quickly slip on her uniform, doing so as quietly as possible. She also tried to remain quiet, in fear of being caught by the gang.

"Does anyone hear that?" Emil asked. He began to walk in her direction.

Gathering her stuff quickly, she hid in a gap between the wall and the lockers. She held her breath as she heard the footsteps came closer. Sweat built up on her neck and hands as she trembled, not wanting to die.

He looked around at the empty space, then shrugged. "Probably just the wind or something. Come on, let's get out of here before we have to deal with these teachers…"

After they left the room, Akane quickly ran out to her last period class, already formulating an excuse as to why she was late.

* * *

_And there's the first chapter! This is gonna be long. I owe my readers an apology for not updating my other stories, so I deleted them. I simply lost interest after being immersed in my schoolwork, and Instagram among other things. This story is actually loosely based off of my roleplays, where Canada is Akane's "big brother" and the whole shipping of this story (Iceland and Akane). I finally have vacation now and I want to try and write something in my spare time so I don't seem like I'm always on my phone. Please drop a review (kindly) and I'll be sure to take in your advice!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Hello! Here is the second chapter! To clarify, this isn't a Human! AU, but the countries coexist with humans. Akane is a country, but we'll get to that later. Also, please bear in mind that the ages of the characters won't be 100% accurate, but many of the characters were placed in the school just because it seemed rather fitting for the progression and setting of the story._

-o-

It was finally the end of the day, and Akane and Hannah were walking out of the school. Akane sighed, that heavy, uneasy feeling still remaining in her chest. 'What do I do…' she pondered. 'What if they find out? What if they hurt me?' An image of Emil passed into her mind, and she immediately wanted to smash his face into a million pieces.

"Akane. Akane! Hallo, Earth to Akane." Hannah waved her hand in front of Akane's expression-rich face.

Akane's eyes snapped back into reality. "O-Oh, sorry…" she laughed nervously. "Just deep in thought."

A playful smirk came across Hannah's lips. "About your boyfriend?"

She raised an eyebrow, puzzled. "Boyfriend?"

Hannah grinned. "Emil, of course!"

Immediately, Akane's cheeks burned red, her eyes shining with a flare of anger. "H-He's not my boyfriend! That bastard…"

The Vincentian continued to tease. "You know you like him. You two would look so cute!" She squealed.

Akane growled in response. "Shut up!" Her eyes caught sight of the Nordic 5 again. The uneasy feeling began to grow again, her stomach twisting into knots of butterflies.

"Can't help but look at the gorgeousness, huh?" Hannah teased.

Akane grunted. "Stop it." Her face was drenched a pale color when she saw Emil's eyes latch onto the two of them.

"Hey Emil! Day one and you have a girlfriend already?" It was that obnoxious guy with the spiky hair again.

Emil's cheeks turned an obvious tint of red. "Shut up! I-It's not like I like her or anything…"

Akane's eyes narrowed as she turned to look at Hannah. "See? I hate him, he hates me. A done deal."

"Lillebror, your face is red." The older boy with the cross hairpin said with his blank expression.

Emil walked up to Akane, putting his hands in his pockets while tilting his head to the side. He looked down at her, his eyes scanning her features. "Hmph. You're not all that pretty anyway."

Akane bit her lip and glared at him. "Same here, jackass." She muttered, barely audible.

At this point, several students were staring at them. Emil raised an eyebrow, barely catching her rude retort. "Hm? Say that again? You're too quiet." He said in a rather cool manner, a small smirk playing on his lips.

She felt her cheeks burn red out of embarrassment. "I-I didn't say anything!" She said, taking a step back.

He responded by grabbing her wrist tightly and pulling her closer to him than before. His eyes were seething a dark anger, piercing deep into Akane's rather fearful and startled ones. "I suggest you watch who you're dealing with." He growled. His grip on her wrist tightened, her hand beginning to feel cold and numb.

"Let me go!" She demanded as she started to struggle from his grasp.

His eyes narrowed, keeping a firm grip on her. "How about _no_?"

Whispers started to form in the growing crowd around them. Hannah's expression was that of an 'I told you so' and 'Maybe this wasn't a good idea'. Tino and Mathias were beginning to look a little nervous. "Yo Ice! Stop it man; she's only a girl!" Mathias protested.

Her eyes flared a burning anger in them. "I _said_, let me GO!"

Raising her free hand, she put a tight, burning slap on his face, catching him by surprise. His grip loosened in pain as he clutched his throbbing, red cheek while letting out a hiss. Emil looked at her, a bit flabbergasted by her demanding and painful move, unable to even let out a sound.

Akane had a disgusted look on her face as she began to turn away. "Sorry Hannah, but we won't be going anywhere this afternoon. I have some homework to finish up." She said while gritting her teeth. "Excuse me…" She said while breaking through the crowd, dashing through as swiftly as she had come before.

A flood of thoughts came through her while she ran. 'How could you do that? They're part of something dangerous; you don't know if he could _hurt_ you.' She felt a sinking feeling in her chest. 'But he deserved it! He wasn't treating me properly, and he wouldn't have let go of me _anyway_.'

She slowed down into a walk, looking around at the shops on Main Street. There was always something new to see, and they had something tasty to eat. Her stomach growled, making her remember that she had passed on going with Hannah to get some frozen yogurt. She frowned, wishing that none of this had happened. However, Akane spotted her favorite cookie shop, _Tasnim_, from across the street. Looking both ways, she ran over and fumbled through her bag to get out her wallet.

"Hey girl! I heard that school started today! How was it?" Lisa, the cashier, was a Jamaican lady with her short hair twisted into dreads which stuck out fashionably. She donned the mint green and chocolate uniform, which was basically just an apron, over her white shirt and jeans.

Akane smiled faintly. "It was okay…" She said, her tone rather glum.

"Here, let me get you your favorite and we'll talk about it, okay?" Lisa said with some concern as she began to grab a jumbo cookie.

-o-

"Hm… I see…" Lisa said after Akane told the story. Well, of course, Akane had dropped the part about the locker room and what she had heard, but Lisa knew enough to understand.

Akane nodded as she nibbled on the large cookie, the chocolate chips melting on her tongue. "Yeah… I feel a bit bad, but at the same time he kind of deserved it."

"It's not like you to wish ill of someone Parvattie." Lisa pointed out, using Akane's real name. After a moment, a small smile came on her face. "Sounds like you have a crush on him."

Her cheeks burned red. "NO! I mean, that's not true. He's a real jerk, and I'm surprised the whole school goes gaga over him."

Lisa chuckled. "It's a possibility."

She pouted. "I wouldn't like him even if he was the last man on Earth." She looked at her watch, and saw that it was already 3:45. "Well, I better get going. Matthew is gonna be worried if I get home on time." She handed Lisa a $5 bill.

Lisa shook her head and handed her back the green slip of paper. "No, you needed this. On the house, kay?"

Akane smiled. "Thank you, Lisa. I'll see you soon!" She said, dashing out of the store.

Matthew looked at the clock. It was 4:03, and Akane wasn't home yet. Maybe he was being a little TOO punctual, but she would usually be home around 5 minutes earlier than designated.

"I'm home!" She said, huffing through the door. She greeted the Canadian with a warm hug.

"I see you're finally home, huh?" He chuckled rubbing her back gently. He decided to lay off of her lateness, considered that she wasn't usually late anyway.

"Yeah…" She said quietly, sighing. "Hey, can we talk?"

He nodded as they both sat on the couch. "Talk to me."

"So… There was this guy at lunch. I bumped into him, and he was a total jerk. He didn't even accept my apology!" she stated, a bit of anger rising in her voice.

However, the calm Canadian chuckled. "I see. Do you know his name?"

She thought for a moment. "Uh… I think it was… Emil! Yeah, Emil."

He raised an eyebrow. "Emil? Emil Steilsson?"

She shrugged. "I don't know what his last name is, but he's from Iceland and he's a total jerk. He's part of this group of guys called the Nordic 5…"

He nodded. "I see. I think I know them," Matthew said cautiously. "They're supposed to be very nice people, but I don't know why…"

Akane frowned in disagreement. "Then later, Emil threatened me and wouldn't let go of me! So I slapped him." She gritted through her teeth.

His eyes widened. "Did he hurt you?" His voice was threatening to become extremely angered as he clenched his fists.

"No, not really." She sighed. "I guess you could say my mood is rather spoiled today." She leaned her head on the Canadian's shoulder, cuddling closer to him.

He frowned and hugged her, giving her a tight squeeze. "I'm sorry today wasn't the way you wanted it to be." He said sympathetically.

Akane smiled a bit. "It's okay. But I met Lili and Basch* Zwingli! They're really nice, though Basch can be a bit… Silent, I suppose."

He raised an eyebrow, almost in surprise. "Those two were there? That's very interesting."

Akane had a puzzled expression across her face. "Matthew, how do you know all of these people?" She asked.

His violet eyes slightly widened for a moment before he laughed nervously. "Oh, just some friends of mine." He smiled at her. "Perhaps you should get a go at your homework."

She groaned and whined. "Do I /have/ to?"

He nodded, a serious expression on his face. "Akane, go and do your homework. Dinner will be ready in an hour."

She sighed and nodded as she dragged her bag up the steps to her room.

-o-

"What the fuck were you thinking?!"

Emil closed his eyes and let out a sigh as he heard the rambling from Mathias. All of the other Nordics just looked at him in concern, while they were in their home.

"Ice, you need to learn etiquette. You've been exposed to your mafia life a little too much. You should know better than to touch a lady like that out in the open. People will get suspicious." Mathias scolded as he folded his arms over his chest. "What did she do to you that was so bad anyway?"

He opened his eyes and let out a scowl. "She has no respect with words. She deserved it."

Tino decided to speak. "But you were a bit rude to her during lunch, remember?"

Emil glared, knowing that the Finn was right. "She needs to watch where she's going." He began to walk to the kitchen as his puffin companion flew onto his shoulder. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to eat some licorice. I'm hungry."

Lukas's cold stare followed Emil. "You didn't keep your promise today."

Emil's eye slightly twitched, the same annoying feeling washing over him like a tsunami. "I'm not saying it. You can't make me."

"Nuthin' wrong with it." Sweden said in his deep, baritone voice.

"No! I refuse!" Emil exclaimed. "This is stupid, I'm heading upstairs to work on my homework." He grabbed the jar of licorice, along with his bookbag, and trudged up to his room.

He plopped down on the seat, removing his textbooks from his bookbag. He glanced over at the History textbook and let out a smirk before his expression reverted to his usual blank stare.

Emil reached deep into the bookbag and pulled out a barrette with a water lily attached to it. He raised an eyebrow as he examined it. The Icelander had found it in the boys' locker room after the Nordics were having their Mafia discussion. It looked oddly familiar, as if he had seen it before, but he couldn't pinpoint it.

Sighing, Emil began to work on his math assignment, obviously uninterested. Resting a cheek upon his palm, he glanced out the window blankly.

He had a view of the neighbor's house, which was close by. It was Matthew's house, or Canada's, anyway. He knew the Canadian back when he was a child, when the Nordics discovered him. His window was just opposite of the Canadian's. Today, the yellow curtains were absent, giving Emil a good view of the room.

It had yellow walls with red trim, and an open closet. As Emil gained more focus of the room, he managed to make out… A dress? Who knew that Matthew wore dresses? His brows furrowed as he saw some purses and other feminine items. What the hell?

A figure came into the room that definitely _wasn't_ Canada. It was a girl, with short hair, tanned skin and had the girls' uniform of the school he attended. Judging by the color, it was the freshman uniform. How strange that from the time he lived here, he never noticed this. But the girl…

-o-

As Akane went to her desk, she looked at the dreadful English homework that she had to complete. It was a pain in the ass, to be blunt, and her gaze went out the window. She never had the curtains open, because she didn't want anyone to see her... Changing. She looked at the window from the opposite house, as her pink orbs locked in with a pair of violet ones.

More specifically, the violet orbs of an Icelander.

Even _more_ specifically, the eyes of Emil Steilsson.

-o-

_I'm really sorry for the delay! I went on vacation and I didn't have enough time to do it considering the fact that I have summer homework. _

_And a note to some who don't like OCxCountries: This is for my friend who I roleplay with, and her Emil and Akane are dating. I just felt like I should post it on FanFiction just to get some feedback from others. So if you don't like it, please don't hate. Never judge a story by its ship, but by the quality and effort put into it._

_Some R+R's would be appreciated! I want to make this fic better than my other ones (because let's face it, my other stories are total crap now that I look at them). Thanks for reading!_


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